Action research studies in education
Inquiry in research for improving at-risk students' literacy skills: the professional development of three florida teachers through their journeys integrating technology, poetry and multiculturalism for literacy carime bersh, national louis benton, national louis lewis, national louis mckenzie-parrales, national louis study focuses on three case studies of three florida teachers’ action research projects focusing on improving at-risk students’ literacy skills through innovative instructional technology, culturally-relevant poetry and bilingual teaching. The teachers, white, african american and latina, describe their research journeys, the literacy teaching strategies they used and the outcomes on their students’ achievement. The case studies are then analyzed focusing on the effects the action research projects had on the participating teachers. The findings indicate that action research is an important tool leading to improved classroom practice, leadership agency and a stronger commitment toward emancipatory educational , luz carime; benton, pamela; lewis, anita; and mckenzie-parrales, research for improving at-risk students' literacy skills: the professional development of three florida teachers through their journeys integrating technology, poetry and multiculturalism for literacy intervention. 2, article :///ie/vol2/iss2/ january 19, view the content in your browser, please download adobe reader or, alternately,You may download the file to your hard : the latest versions of adobe reader do not support viewing pdf files within firefox on mac os and if you are using a modern (intel) mac, there is no official plugin for viewing pdf files within the browser for practitioner research (cpfr). Succinct definition of action research appears in the workshop materials we use at the institute for the study of inquiry in education. That definition states that action research is a disciplined process of inquiry conducted by and for those taking the action. The primary reason for engaging in action research is to assist the “actor” in improving and/or refining his or her tioners who engage in action research inevitably find it to be an empowering experience. Relevance is guaranteed because the focus of each research project is determined by the researchers, who are also the primary consumers of the s even more important is the fact that action research helps educators be more effective at what they care most about—their teaching and the development of their students.
Action research survey
When teachers have convincing evidence that their work has made a real difference in their students' lives, the countless hours and endless efforts of teaching seem action research ional action research can be engaged in by a single teacher, by a group of colleagues who share an interest in a common problem, or by the entire faculty of a school. These seven steps, which become an endless cycle for the inquiring teacher, are the following:Identifying research informed 1—selecting a action research process begins with serious reflection directed toward identifying a topic or topics worthy of a busy teacher's time. Selecting a focus begins with the teacher researcher or the team of action researchers asking: what element(s) of our practice or what aspect of student learning do we wish to investigate? 2—clarifying second step involves identifying the values, beliefs, and theoretical perspectives the researchers hold relating to their focus. For example, if teachers are concerned about increasing responsible classroom behavior, it will be helpful for them to begin by clarifying which approach—using punishments and rewards, allowing students to experience the natural consequences of their behaviors, or some other strategy—they feel will work best in helping students acquire responsible classroom behavior 3—identifying research a focus area has been selected and the researcher's perspectives and beliefs about that focus have been clarified, the next step is to generate a set of personally meaningful research questions to guide the 4—collecting sional educators always want their instructional decisions to be based on the best possible data. Action researchers can accomplish this by making sure that the data used to justify their actions are valid (meaning the information represents what the researchers say it does) and reliable (meaning the researchers are confident about the accuracy of their data). Lastly, before data are used to make teaching decisions, teachers must be confident that the lessons drawn from the data align with any unique characteristics of their classroom or ensure reasonable validity and reliability, action researchers should avoid relying on any single source of data. Most teacher researchers use a process called triangulation to enhance the validity and reliability of their findings. Observing a phenomenon through multiple “windows” can help a single researcher compare and contrast what is being seen through a variety of planning instruction, teachers want the techniques they choose to be appropriate for the unique qualities of their students.
All teachers have had the experience of implementing a “research-proven” strategy only to have it fail with their students. The ability of the action research process to satisfy an educator's need for “fit” may be its most powerful attribute. Because the data being collected come from the very students and teachers who are engaged with the treatment, the relevance of the findings is the harried and overworked teacher, “data collection” can appear to be the most intimidating aspect of the entire seven-step action research process. The key to managing triangulated data collection is, first, to be effective and efficient in collecting the material that is already swirling around the classroom, and, second, to identify other sources of data that might be effectively surfaced with tests, classroom discussions, or 5—analyzing gh data analysis often brings to mind the use of complex statistical calculations, this is rarely the case for the action researcher. A number of relatively user-friendly procedures can help a practitioner identify the trends and patterns in action research data. During this portion of the seven-step process, teacher researchers will methodically sort, sift, rank, and examine their data to answer two generic questions:What is the story told by these data? Answering these two questions, the teacher researcher can acquire a better understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and as a result can end up producing grounded theory regarding what might be done to improve the 6—reporting is often said that teaching is a lonely endeavor. The loneliness of teaching is unfortunate not only because of its inefficiency, but also because when dealing with complex problems the wisdom of several minds is inevitably better than sad history of teacher isolation may explain why the very act of reporting on their action research has proven so powerful for both the researchers and their colleagues. The reporting of action research most often occurs in informal settings that are far less intimidating than the venues where scholarly research has traditionally been shared.
Faculty meetings, brown bag lunch seminars, and teacher conferences are among the most common venues for sharing action research with peers. However, each year more and more teacher researchers are writing up their work for publication or to help fulfill requirements in graduate programs. Regardless of which venue or technique educators select for reporting on research, the simple knowledge that they are making a contribution to a collective knowledge base regarding teaching and learning frequently proves to be among the most rewarding aspects of this 7—taking informed informed action, or “action planning,” the last step in the action research process, is very familiar to most teachers. When teachers write lesson plans or develop academic programs, they are engaged in the action planning process. What makes action planning particularly satisfying for the teacher researcher is that with each piece of data uncovered (about teaching or student learning) the educator will feel greater confidence in the wisdom of the next steps. Although all teaching can be classified as trial and error, action researchers find that the research process liberates them from continuously repeating their past mistakes. More important, with each refinement of practice, action researchers gain valid and reliable data on their developing purposes for action stated earlier, action research can be engaged in by an individual teacher, a collaborative group of colleagues sharing a common concern, or an entire school faculty. These three different approaches to organizing for research serve three compatible, yet distinct, purposes:Building the reflective progress on schoolwide ng professional ng the reflective individual teachers make a personal commitment to systematically collect data on their work, they are embarking on a process that will foster continuous growth and development. In this way, the individual teachers conducting action research are making continuous progress in developing their strengths as reflective progress on schoolwide singly, schools are focusing on strengthening themselves and their programs through the development of common focuses and a strong sense of esprit de corps.
As a result, when a faculty chooses to focus on one issue and all the teachers elect to enthusiastically participate in action research on that issue, significant progress on the schoolwide priorities cannot help but ng professional an entire faculty will share a commitment to student development, yet the group finds itself unable to adopt a single common focus for action research. However, like the doctors at the medical center, the teachers in a “quality” school may well differ on which specific aspects of the shared vision they are most motivated to pursue at any point in s whose faculties cannot agree on a single research focus can still use action research as a tool to help transform themselves into a learning organization. It is common practice in a quality medical center for physicians to engage in independent, even idiosyncratic, research agendas. However, it is also common for medical researchers to share the findings obtained from their research with colleagues (even those engaged in other specialties). In these schools, multiple action research inquiries occur simultaneously, and no one is held captive to another's priority, yet everyone knows that all the work ultimately will be shared and will consequently contribute to organizational action research now? Ever there were a time and a strategy that were right for each other, the time is now and the strategy is action research! With the exploding knowledge base on teaching and learning and the heightened demands on teachers to help all children achieve mastery of meaningful objectives, the inadequacy of the blue-collar model for teaching is becoming much the teachers in a school begin conducting action research, their workplace begins to take on more of the flavor of the workplaces of other professionals. Worse still, the respect that society had traditionally placed upon public school teachers is eroding, as teacher bashing and attacks on the very value of a public education are becoming a regular part of the political landscape. Nevertheless, great personal satisfaction comes from playing a role in creating successful solutions to continually changing puzzles.
Specifically, most education departments and ministries have declared that they expect the standards to be rigorous and meaningful, and that they expect all students to meet the standards at the mastery stakes in the standards movement are high. For this reason, it is imperative that these 21st century pioneers, our classroom teachers, conduct the research on “standards attainment” the time is right for action research. The teachers, schools, and school systems that seize this opportunity and begin investing in the power of inquiry will find that they are re-creating the professional practice of education in their locale as a meaningful and rewarding pursuit. Jite and other oom action research: a case study assessing students' perceptions and learning outcomes of classroom teaching versus on-line schmidtillinois state research has grown in popularity throughout the past two decades (harkavy, puckett, & romer, 2000; fleming, 2000). Mcniff (1999) defined action research as the name given to an increasingly popular movement in educational research that encourages teachers to be reflective of their own practices in order to enhance the quality of education for themselves and their students. Mcniff continued that action research is a form of self-reflective inquiry that can be used in school-based curriculum development, professional development, and school-improvement schemes. Schmuck (1997) extended on teacher self-reflection and stated that "when educators strive to reflect on their past, present, and future actions and engage in solitary dialogue, their perspectives of work mature" (p. Mcniff concluded that action research actively involves teachers as participants in their own educational al (2001) provided a seven-step outline to develop a classroom action research project. These steps included statement of the problem, review of literature, research strategy, data gathering, data analysis, taking action, and sharing the findings.
The following sections discuss in detail how this author addressed these steps in a case study in which student perception of an on-line classroom environment and a traditional classroom environment were assessed along with the corresponding learning ent of the indicated by mettetal (2001), the statement of the problem for a classroom action research project should include a question related to student learning. Little research exists on the evaluation of student perception of on-line versus traditional classroom learning environments and their corresponding learning outcomes, in particular, when the course material was to be delivered simultaneously by the same order to provide a meaningful integration of on-line tools into the traditional classroom environment, two questions were addressed. Only when these questions can be answered positively can the incorporation of on-line tools be considered majority of higher education institutions offer courses on-line (beller & or, 1998). Ryan, hodson carlton, and ali (1998) spoke of a shift in paradigm in higher education from traditional classroom settings to distance education program delivery via the world wide web. They further stated that distance education delivered via on-line technology was also becoming a viable and convenient alternative for students who are "not so distant. Of 609 students enrolled in one distance education program, 500 also were enrolled in traditional courses on campus (guernsey, 1998). Liu and thompson (1999) found that faculty members are more likely to use a wider variety of educational technologies when exposed to distance learning. For example, powers, davis, and torrence (1998) enriched their on-line teaching and sense of learning community by expecting students to participate regularly and consistently in class discussions on the web and by requiring responses from each student to their peers' on-line , hodson carlton, and ali (1998) observed that higher education is moving with deliberate speed toward the electronic classroom and that much has been published on faculty experiences with course delivery through the web. In spite of the rapid expansion of on-line instruction, little research existed on the evaluation of student perception of on-line versus traditional classroom learning and their corresponding learning outcomes, in particular when on-line learning components are embedded in an otherwise traditional classroom learning environment.
Sherry, fulford, and zhang (1998) discussed the positive relationships between students' satisfaction with instruction and their subsequent success in a course. What safeguards can institutions employ to sustain the integrity of their academic programs and how can this nontraditional delivery system help an institution realize its stated educational goal and objectives? Combining on-line learning with the traditional classroom could help to diversify teaching and learning alike, address a multitude of learning styles, and increase technological literacy of both faculty and al (2001) stated that both quantitative and qualitative methods were appropriate to assess the outcomes of a classroom action research project. Three major research designs could be used for classroom action research projects: pretest-posttest designs, comparisons of similar classes, and case studies. It is up to the reader to determine whether or to what extent the findings may apply to a different students enrolled in tec 151 introduction to industrial computer systems in fall semester 2001 (n ª 35) were eligible to participate in the classroom action research project. The results of these tests were used as the basis to assess learning outcomes along with the assignments completed during each three-week -gathering strategies commonly used in classroom action research include the use of test scores, teacher evaluations, final course grades, and other progressive classroom assessment techniques. Results of the tests and projects were the basis to assess learning outcomes and determine if they were statistically significant between on-line learners and off-line al (2001) stated that the researcher should be looking for findings with practical significance when analyzing the data, in addition to statistical significance. Thematic analyses of short answers were used to reflect more systematically on the teaching methods used during the time of the case subject matters ng on-line and traditional classroom ional off-line students identified the following constructs: many off-line students indicated that they enjoyed the face-to-face interaction with the professor and peers, and stated that it was easy to ask questions in the classroom. A few comments on dislikes were related to problems with the technology itself, such as problems using realplayer or slow modems; another concern included the lack of direct interaction with the faculty member and a longer wait to have questions answered that arose during the week.
The lack of interaction with the faculty member was also reflected in the item "interaction was evident", which on-line learners rated less favorably than off-line learners on instrument most common suggestion to improve the on-line experience was to include a time once a week or so in class or in the laboratory when students could directly interact with the faculty, rather than could the findings of the study be used to improve teaching strategies? Although this study used the same presentations in both learning environments, the content will be revisited to further identify factors that might have caused the differences in the item "interaction was evident", which was more favorably rated by traditional classroom students for the first subject matter, will also be addressed in a future revised version of the on-line/off-line learning environments. Although on-line students were required to log on to a chat room (synchronously) twice a week for one hour and to use the asynchronous discussion tool at least twice a week, interaction seemed not to be sufficient for on-line learners to rate the item "interaction was evident" more favorably. These lower ratings will be addressed by finding new and creative ways to use the chat and discussion tools, or by identifying new web tools that better address student onal data analyses, research, and follow-up studies are needed to continue to successfully incorporate on-line learning into the classroom. Further research could include how previous exposure to computers and distance learning affects learning outcomes. Follow-up studies could assess how perceptions of on-line and off-line learning change over time as technical literacy increases. Yet other research may address how learning outcomes vary when students have a choice of their teaching and learning al's (2001) last step included the sharing of findings. The case study presented in this paper did not only allow the author to reflect on his own teaching and learning style, but it also had the potential to impact faculty members in their efforts to incorporate on-line technology into their industrial teacher education classrooms. The author will continue to use the web as a teaching tool and further research and design successful web-enhancement models for traditional classroom classroom action research project presented in this paper was the first of this kind for the author.
However, the author will continue to research the benefits of on-line teaching and learning and see if the findings of this study can be further corroborated. More research with larger student numbers should be conducted, including the use of variables such as learning style differences. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the mid-western educational research association (mwera), chicago, , m. The journal of educational research 92(3), t is assistant professor in the department of technology at illinois sate university in normal, illinois. Suggestions for action research studies of climates of medical education jm, harden : 3762357 [indexed for medline] sharemesh termsmesh termseducation, medical, undergraduate*schools, medical*pubmed commons home.
